Category: movies

Blackfish is a 2013 documentary about orca (killer whales) in captivity, which premiered in Sundance in January. An engaging, moving film, presented like a psychological thriller, which started production when a trainer was attacked and killed by an orca in 2010. A particularly harrowing sequence was an interview with a former orca catcher. They were in Puget Sound in 1970, and when the young whales were separated from their mothers, the killer whales started screeching and crying, communicating with each other and grieving. It was only then, he said, when he realized – really, truly realized – what they were doing. It was like kidnapping babies, he said, and though he didn’t stop working (the dead whales were cut open and weighed down with stones so they would sink – he was paid to do this monstrous thing, after all) he said that was when he started to cry.

Thank you to Dean for the tip. I’ve never liked those captive animal shows. They have always felt wrong to me.

Watch this film when you get the chance.

Cooped up in the house in Bulacan over the weekend, forced to stay indoors by the rain and the flood.

Who am I kidding. I would have stayed indoors anyway.

Here are movies, some of which I have seen a while back but have not reviewed. Consider them my recommendations, the next time you’re stuck at home because of the rain:

Volver (2006) – The film opens with a group of women, young and old, in their colorful outfits and beautiful hair, cleaning tombs in a windy little town. I think that very first scene encapsulates Almodovar’s thematic style in his films (or at least in the films I have seen so far): death and loss presented in the most colorful, most vibrant way.

I love the efficient way Volver‘s story is told. Raimunda and her daughter and sister clean their mother’s grave, then visit their aunt, who is suffering from dementia. They wonder how she is able to cook and clean the house with her poor eyesight and poor memory. They cross the street and visit a family friend, whose mother has been missing for three years. We get all this information through dialogue and an energetic flow of scenes, no voice-over or elaborate exposition needed.

And just look at the colors. It’s a feast for the eyes.

For a film that talks about death, Volver left me with feel-good feels. It’s the darnedest thing. Watch it.

The Great Gatsby (2013) – Speaking of eye feasts, great cinematography, costume and set design from this Baz Luhrmann film. It’s based on one of my favorite novels, starring excellent actors, so a win all around.

Luhrmann’s films feature over-the-top, highly stylized, extravagant scenes – a great fit for the high society excesses Fitzgerald writes about in the novel. The film is set to modern music (Jay-Z for the 20’s), a juxtaposition that works.

The film made me want to re-read the book! Now that’s successful storytelling.

World War Z (2013) – I hear it’s nothing like the book, but I have no idea because I haven’t read it yet. Still, a great watch, and it presents an elegant solution to the “Zeke” problem. And Peter Capaldi’s here, being decidedly non-Malcolm Tucker in his calmness and sadness. Aw.

Kick-Ass (2010) – Yes, it took me forever to get to watch this. Better than I expected. I enjoyed watching Mark Strong as the big baddie D’Amico.

Red (2010) – I wasn’t impressed the first time I saw it (the funny bits were in the trailers!), but I enjoyed the years-later re-watch. Ready for the sequel now, I suppose.

The Wolverine

All I can say is I am happy to see Japan and Japanese actors treated with respect in a major Hollywood film. Japan as an actual setting – not as a passing curiosity or a place of alienation (although I did like Lost in Translation) – and the Japanese as actual characters, not as caricatures or object of ridicule. “Everything has meaning,” says Mariko, and thank you for saying that. I love Rila Fukushima (Yukio) in this.

I am really tired of Wolverine (this is Hugh Jackman’s sixth time playing the character), but The Wolverine is an engaging watch.

Jagten (The Hunt) (2012)

Mads Mikkelsen plays Lucas, a kindergarten teaching assistant who is wrongly accused of pedophilia. The small town persecution feels much too much at times – it ends up making me feel like the filmmakers are milking the situation to elicit more tears, to detrimental effect – but my God, watch it for Mikkelsen’s sublime performance (his reaction to the injustice made me physically ill, he is that effective) and that beautiful ending.

Todo Sobre Mi Madre (All About My Mother) (1999)

I remember J asked me what this film is about after I watched it, but even as I told him the narrative, it couldn’t capture the heart of this film, the tragedy and joy of it, the visual mosaic of A Streetcar Named Desire, All About Eve, a transplant coordinator starring in a video about organ donation only to experience it days later in real life. Watch it.

Dancer in the Dark is a musical written and directed by Lars von Trier. It stars Bjork as a Czechoslovakian immigrant named Selma Jezkova, who works in a factory and is slowly going blind.

Cut for spoilers and further discussion. Please stop reading if you haven’t seen the film.

Continue reading dancer in the dark

When I heard that Monsters, Inc. is going to have a prequel, I wondered what the epiphany (this is Pixar – characters always reach an epiphany) will be in Monsters University. How could Pixar make this prequel enjoyable, when the characters – Mike Wazowski and James Sullivan – have yet to realize that power (literal, in their world) comes not from a place of terror, but a place that gives you delight and laughter? Will Monsters U end with the protagonists understanding how to effectively scare children shitless? That’s going to take a dark turn pretty quickly.

BUT: the filmmakers found a way to end this without making us squirm in our seats. (An animated film for children telling children that the monster in the closet is real is bound to make you feel dirty.) Monsters University fleshes out the characters, injects it with humor (“I can’t go back to jail!”), and tells a university story (Harry Potter, anyone?) with an unpredictable plot. It made me nostalgic, actually. You see that guy with multiple limbs chugging down multiple cups of coffee on exam day? Yeah.

So many things to love in this film. Do watch it.

PS The short film, The Blue Umbrella, isn’t the best Pixar short in terms of storyline but the animation is gorgeous. The details! The color! I can’t wait to see the next Pixar film animated in this way.

PPS Monsters University has a working website.

Man of Steel

Superman/Clark Kent is a boring character. He is corny. His main disguise is a pair of glasses. His weaknesses are kryptonite and super!feelings about alienation and identity. You can’t always use kryptonite to bring this guy down, so the best way to tell his story is to focus on his loneliness and confusion.

The Clark Kent in Zack Snyder and Christopher Nolan’s Man of Steel is relatable, and it helps that Henry Cavill is actually a good actor. I believed him as the still bewildered and vulnerable Superman; Brandon Routh, on the other hand, looked like a talking piece of wood and bored me to tears. This version of the origin story flows with better logic than the origin story we’re used to (the one where he meets Lois Lane in The Daily Planet). Cavill is also supported by a top-notch cast: Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne, Russell Crowe (and I am reminded by his turn as Jor-El that he is a good actor; damn his singing in Les Miz), and Michael Shannon, who is just menacing and perfect as General Zod. (You should watch him in Revolutionary Road and Take Shelter, if you haven’t already.)

My quibbles: fight scenes that go on so long that they feel repetitive, shaky camerawork.

Overall, still a good watch.

Deliverance

Some Spoilers. This is your typical adventure-goes-horribly-wrong story, with a beautiful reversal of roles in the end (the macho becomes the weakling, and vice-versa). A group led by outdoor fanatic Lewis (Burt Reynolds) goes on a canoe trip down the Cahulawassee River, which will soon be flooded by the construction of a dam. The most memorable images to me are the abandoned houses, the tiny church that is driven down the road on the back of a truck to take it away from the flood. “I just want this town to die in peace,” says the sheriff in the end, and it is sad and beautiful and just the perfect line. And the actors (esp. Jon Voight) are fantastic here.

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father

I won’t tell you anything about this documentary, which is both tribute and a true crime tape, but I’ll say this: this is the single most devastating film I have ever seen in my life. It is incredibly heartbreaking. And I don’t think I can watch it again.